Anathema
by JNSx7
Summary: One-shot. Takes place after "The Snowmen" episode. This takes place in 1692, during the Salem witch trials. One of Clara's copies, Clarabeth Oswald, has been accused of witch craft. When one is accused they have a choice: 1. To 'admit' making a pact with the devil and spending life in prison. 2. Be hanged.


**A/N: This takes place not so long after "The Snowmen" episode. For anyone wondering, this is not based on the play, _Crucible_, it is based on history.**

**This is dedicated to my friends and family, who, without realizing, helped encourage me to write.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Doctor Who_.**

**Anathema**

_Anathema:_

_1. A person or thing detested or loathed._

_2. A person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction._

_3. A formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication._

_4. Any imprecation of divine punishment._

_5. A curse; execration._

**Salem, 1692.**

"Yea, it is true."

Those were the first words that she heard that would change her life.

It's one of the many witch trials, and the speaker, Abigail Williams, is one of the so-called spies for God, who are said to have talked with the devil, but not giving in to the devil's words. But because they saw the devil, they also saw the people who were with the devil, the witches and wizards. And right now, Clarabeth Oswald is accused of being a witch.

"Yeah, it is true. Goody Oswald has made a pact with the devil." The girl says in a voice that sounds like she's in hysteria, as if being in the same building with Clarabeth Oswald could kill her.

"I have seen her there! I have seen her there. She was standing with Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wilde, and many, many others! She came to me, not with her body, but in my dreams—but it was not my dreams! She turned my God-like dreams into own of the devil's work!

"In that dream, I was standing in my bedroom when a raven as black as ashes had taken perch to my windowsill. I looked at it with curiosity, wondering why, in all places, did it land there? Surely, I thought, it would rather land on a kitchen's windowsill, yet there it was, staring at me with eyes black as the night.

"I went to it, thinking that it was injured. But when I took that first step, the raven flew at me, screeching like the devil! It was scratching me, and I tried to stop it, but it was also pecking me all over! I thought that it was trying to kill me, but I noticed that it was instead trying to rip off my clothes! I got down on my knees and I prayed to my loving Lord in heaven, praying for help!

"And then the raven spoke to me. Saying that if I would to rip off my clothes, it would stop hurting me. I said to it, 'You lie! You lie, for that is the only language you can do when being with the devil!' Then it gave off a screech, not like the other ones, this one sounded like the devil itself was in my very ears! Immediately, many more ravens, as black as the first, came in my room through the windowsill and started to swarm me, ravenously trying to rip off my clothes!

"I prayed and prayed to my Lord in Heaven, asking Him to stop the ravens' vigorous attacks! And he told me that the ravens were sent by someone, someone who wants you to sin by taking off your clothes, someone who wants you to make a pact with the devil, someone who wants to make Deputy Governor Danforth, Reverend Samuel Parris, Reverend John Hale, and Judge Hawthorne to sin and give their soul to the devil! I asked, 'Who? Who God, who?'

"Then before my eyes, the ravens all came together and formed a figure curled up on the ground! I could not see the face, for it was covered by its hair, that was as black as was the ravens! Then, it slowly stood up, but the hair still blocked the face, so I still did not know who it was. The figure slowly lifted its head, and the face I saw was of Clarabeth Oswald!"

She pointed her finger towards Clarabeth to the most extent that it was capable of, as if Abigail Williams thought that her finger could send Clarabeth Oswald down to Hell.

Everyone in the building looked at Clarabeth with eyes that looked like terror was edged in their very souls.

"Goody Oswald," began Judge Hawthorne in a slow, gentle voice, "will you admit to the sin of making a pact with the devil and the attempt of trying to make Abigail Williams sin?"

Clarabeth Oswald said sternly, "I will not, for I have done no such thing."

"Goody Oswald, if you do not admit your sin of making a pact with the devil, then you shall be hanged with the others who will not admit their sin of being with the devil."

"I shall not say that I have made a pact with the devil, for that would be a lie. 'Thou shalt not lie.' And stop calling me Goody Oswald. You're sentencing me to death, so there is no reason to try to show respect to me. Executioners may have sympathy for people, but they still kill."

Judge Hawthorne gave a long sigh. "Then, Clarabeth Oswin Oswald, you shall be hanged for your sins with being with the devil."

Reverend Samuel Parris began to write Clarabeth's execution order.

"Being with the devil?" Clarabeth asked in disgust, her voice growing louder with each word. "Being with the devil? If anyone here has been with the devil, its her!" She points to Abigail Williams. "She and her friends who turned themselves from a circle of friends into a gang of juvenile delinquents! They can not sense a witch, nor a wizard! They are only saying that the accused have been with the devil because then they can get away with anything! And I tell you now, that none of the accused have made a pact with the devil! Not Sarah Good! Not Elizabeth Howe! Not George Burroughs! Not Bridget Bishop! Not Martha Carrier! Not Sarah Osborn! And _especially_ not Rebecca Nurse! Rebecca Nurse was the most God-like person I knew, and you sentenced her to hang! And all of you," Clarabeth gestures to the others in the building, "you all just cheered! You cheered as Rebecca Nurse, a kind old woman, was hung! How dare you! If anyone is to go to Hell, it should be all of you!"

This was immediately followed by an uproar.

* * *

Clarabeth Oswald and two others, George Jacobs, Sr., and John Proctor, were standing next to the gallows, waiting for their turn to come.

The crowd cheered as George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, and John Willard were hung.

Now, it's their turn. Clarabeth Oswald walks up the gallows with dignity; her head held high and not one tear falling from her eyes. She walks up to her spot at the end, and a noose is put around her neck. The three up there all had their front part of their feet sticking out of the front of the gallows.

That's how the ones who are accused and refuse to say that their witches die; a noose around their neck and then pushed off the gallows.

George Jacobs, Sr. was saying a prayer; John Proctor was quoting Jesus's last prayer; and Clarabeth didn't want to be left out, so she searched her memory for the perfect bible saying, but she could not find one that really spoke to her. Then, she remembered the inscriptions by John Greenleaf Whittier on a monument marking Rebecca Nurse's grave.

She said in a loud voice, "'O Christian Martyr Who for Truth could die'"

Clarabeth Oswald wasn't quoting it for herself, she was quoting it for the two men next to her; she was quoting it for all the others who had been accused but refused to say that they were in allegiance with the devil; she was quoting it for all the others who will come after her.

George Jacobs, Sr. has been pushed off the gallows. The crowd cheers, believing with every fiber of their being, that they were cleansing the world.

"'When all about thee Owned the hideous lie?'"

"Clara!" Clarabeth heard someone yell for what she assumes is her. "Clara!" Who was yelling her name? She searched the crowd, and sees a man in a brown coat of some kind running through the crowd towards her. "Clara!"

Clarabeth sees the man hold out something illuminating a green light, pointing it at her noose.

"'The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,'"

"Witchcraft!" She heard someone yell before knocking the object out of the man's hands.

"No!" The man yells, diving for the object, but was being pushed away before he could grab it.

John Proctor has been pushed off the gallows, the only word from the quote not escaping his lips were 'Amen'.

"No!" The man screamed as he was struggling to free himself from the grasp of the townsfolk, but to no use. "No! Clara!"

"'Is breathing freer for thy sake today.'"

Clarabeth Oswald has been pushed off the gallows.

* * *

**A/N: So, what did you think? Leave me a review below and let me know.**


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